Used to be the Trying Woodsman... as derived from the Flying Dutchman...
In this blog I'll post my outdooradventures and other things related to this topic...but I decided to expand my blogposts and topics to include homesteading, self reliance and all things related. Global and social developments on enviromental issues and associated economic or political issues... They'll all find a place too, somehow.

Sunday, July 28, 2013

Sunshine & sharpies

The summerheat doesn't allow to be very active, so I spend much of my time hanging around, either in the backyard, behind the computer of sitting around with a book... or just sit around, mesmerising, thinking and dreaming.

I'd hate to see this!

The summer is at its height and with it come a variety of activities.... or lack there of. It remains to be very dry and windy too. The result is that, at this moment, we have reached the highest level of forestfirewarning; 5E. That means the risk for forestfire is very high, because everything is extremely dry. Open fire of any kind is strictly prohibited.
It shows in the plants too. All the ferns and lily of the valley lie flat here, the trees have started to drop their leaves, making it look like autumn already and the moss and grass sound like hay, when you walk over them.

But summer sure does have it's good side too!
Earlier last week Esther and the girl went strawberry picking. There is someone who has several fields of them and you can pick as much as you like cheaply. So she came home with 3... buckets! each containing about 10kgs. One of the buckets gave way due to the weight. Bad quality Chinacrap??

Later that day I went berrypicking in our own yard. Allthough nowhere near as much as the ladies, but I found a variety of berries "in the wild"; black and red currants, foreststrawberries and raspberries.

They all combined very well with fresh whipped cream!!!

Much of the time is spent at ease. One of the things I did (and regularly do) was lying of the kids' trampoline, looking at the sky, seeing the clouds drift by and see and hear the wind go through the large birchtrees. Swallows sift through the sky, calling and I marvel at their aeronautical abilities... There's the buzz of bees and flies, butterflies flutter around and crickets chirp in the high grass.
During one of these lie-down.and-look-sessions, our youngest one joined me and we watched the clouds, seeing horses, dragons, arrows and all other kinds of things. I had forgotten how much fun this could be... Growing up is such a drag....

I also had some trouble sleeping last week. After lying awake for about an hour I was tired of it (??) and got up. It was shortly befor 04:30. It was already light and I took the opportunity to go for an early morningwalk. This time I beat the sun to it, as I was out befor she was. It had been a long time and I used to be an earlyhour kind of guy, so this experience was refreshing in more then one way. I went to the edge of the lake and sat down, looking at the morningfog drifting by and seeing the lake steam..... As I sat there, enjoying myself, a few cranes to my right appearantly woke up and made their presence noticeable by loudly calling out, shattering the morningstillness. Gave me quite a surprise!! Then they flew off, their trumpeting calls echoeing across the lake.

Not much later I could see the first rays of the sun coming over the treetops and hitting the far side of the lake. Slowly but surely more and more animals came to life. Fish were splashing in the reeds next to me, a couple of tofsvipa (Vanellus vanellus) decided to pick up, where the cranes left off and not much later a single loon joined in, as it slowly swam across the lake.

There were many smaller birds too and I obviously sat close to their nesting site and in their flypath as a couple of them kept calling and one came very close to my face as it approached its nest. gave me a bit of a scare....

Not much later it turned out that I was not the only "early bird" in the area. The sound of a couple of quads and dirtbikes tore the veil of tranquility violently to shreds..... I will not mind if these city summerguests go back home soon. Silence appearently is scary or threatening to them.

I spend some time doing some things that require low levels of energy. I maintained and sharpened all the "sharpies" in the house. Well... not all of them, but the ones used outdoors mostly. I did not realise we had so many!!! There are fixed blades to all 5 of us as well as pockets knifes. There are the ones we use as tools and the oldies.... Actually there are 2 knives that do not see much use; the leatherhandled heavy one and the Solingenpocketknife. The previous one is nice to use, when wearing thick gloves in winter and the Solingen one is both a gift and not as versatile. The redhandled knife to the right is the restored Mora I showed earlier.

While doing some gardeningwork I found the perfectly intact skull of a bird. Looking at it I was quite taken by the fragility of it and the detail.... Amazing this once belonged to a fully functioning and thinking animal!
It is sitting on a shelf now and hopefully will be joined by a rats' skull next spring. That is what remains from one of the cat's kills yesterday. I left it on a marked spot, hoping it will have rotted clean by then, so it can join the birds' skull. The forest ants are already hard at work at it, but I'll spare you the graphic details. ;)

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Disclaimer... or what ever you want to call it...

Please remember that copying the things I did, is entirely at your own risk and to your own judgement. I can not and will not be held responsible for anything going wrong. When using potentially hazardous things like sharp blades, fire or anything else, please think before you do!!!

The contents in this blog reflect my views, experiences, ideas or feelings. This goes for the things I write and show, but also for the items I re-post, both text and image. When ever possible I will ask for permission from the original authors or sources to re-post or reuse items I find and I'd appreciate it if you'd do the same, should you feel the need to repost or use my items.

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